Escaping the city for a while

It can be hard to live in the city. Though there are a lot of green spaces in TO we have to drive to them which kind of sucks. I grew up surrounded by woods so this big city living is not my ideal. It is nice to be surrounded by nature, to wake up with the sun to the sound of birds singing in the morning. It's nice to see stars at night and chipmunks! I love chipmunks. They are everywhere here. Frogs and ants too. Big black ants everywhere. Oh nature, how I have missed thee. So we are at my in-laws cottage on a lake most of this week. 

 The weather has been alternating between humid and sunny and thunderstorms. This has created many opportunities to look at shiny wet leaves glowing in the sunshine. I wish I was a better photographer.

 I spotted some mullein. Mullein has a few medicinal uses, mostly respiratory I think. It is easy to recognize because of its soft, fluffy leaves. It can grow really tall in a season.

This is an overgrown path that leads to some shallow, weedy waters just perfect for fish babies. It's also speckled with wild flowers and surrounded by sumac. Sumac can be used to make pink lemonade if you have the right species (one is poisonous). Sumac lemonade once was a thriving market but has since been replaced with chemical lemonades with food colouring. I hope to make the sumac kind some day to see if it tastes different. Maybe this industry can be revived.

Milkweed to feed the butterflies. You can eat the pods that will form like okra.

 Piles and piles of daises blowing in the wind making it hard to get a clear picture.

And the promise of future blackberries. Looks like there will be a lot this year.

 Beautiful blue juniper berries, perfect for fixing digestive problems or making gin.

 The lake side of things. My little monster went for a swim in that lake today and loved it.